06 June 2011

Arecibo Photo Addendum

I hope I’m not overdoing it if I offer you five more photos of the Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory from 1965.

View of Arecibo Observatory, 1965.

An all-encompassing photo that captures the back of the visitors’ quarters (left foreground), the lawn letters “AIO,” the administration building from windows up (center, on hill), the platform suspended in the distance (left center) and flags.

Arecibo platform from control room.

The platform viewed from the control room in the administration building. (Yes, someone’s sitting there, waiting anxiously for me to leave.)

A view along the bow-shaped azimuth below the platform.

Arecibo Observatory catwalk to plaftorm.

Looking down the catwalk from the platform. (Ignore the box and rope—they were painting the chain-link fencing.)

Guard dog, Arecibo Observatory, 1965.

OK, why include this “snapshot”? (1) You’ll see a guard dog and guard, lending credence to the warning sign in my Arecibo blog post. (2) On the right fore- ground, you’ll see the edge of a seat of one of the old Air Force jeeps used at AIO. (3) On the left foreground, you’ll recognize a VW Beetle, which I may mention in next Friday’s blog post.

P.S.

Last Friday, after I released the blog post on the Arecibo Observatory, I learned that the National Science Foundation had just awarded a 5-year cooperative agreement to manage, operate and maintain the observatory to a team led by SRI International (http://www.sri.com/news/releases/06022011.html).